Did anybody notice that Delmon Young can hit? Neither did we. The most impressive thing is his ability to take what is given to him. Lots of power hitters refuse to give in to pitchers, waiting for their pitch. As with many young hitters, Delmon is agressive, and most pitchers and managers take advantage of that by feeding them a healthy dose of breaking pitches on the outside half of the plate. Young just keeps pounding those pitches into right field. It usually takes a player two years to learn how to do that and many players never learn it. Is there a whole in his swing? Only time will tell, but we don’t see one yet.

Joe Maddon hopes the home crowd won’t boo Delmon when he makes his debut at the Pit.

Did anybody notice that the Rays stole a bullpen from another team yesterday? After Jason Hammel gave up a 2-run home run to A(ss) J(ack) Pierzynski, the bullpen came in and retired 13 of the 14 batters they faced. Where the hell did that come from and did it turn back into a pumpkin at midnight?

Ty Wiggington missed his final rehab test as both games of a double-header were rained out in Durham, but he is expected to rejoin the team and be in the lineup for tonight’s game. No word yet where he will be in the lineup, but our guess is either second base (to give Jorge Cantu a day off) or first base, with Kevin Witt at DH.

The rotation is full of AAAA-level talent, and the bullpen’s down to…a bunch of guys who probably couldn’t pick themselves out of a lineup. The downside of this is that the team’s going to allow a bunch of runs before the end of the year. The upside is that we’ll learn a lot more about certain guys than we would’ve if things were different. Sound familiar? That is not a quote about the Rays pitching staff. It is a quote about the Mariners staff

The Mariners have won 7 of 9 despite their loss to the Angels on Wednesday night. Of course Tuesday’s win was more painful as Rafael Soriano took a line drive off the head from Vlad Guerrero. We aren’t sure how pitchers don’t shit themselves when standing that close to Vlad the Impaler.